


Elena (Changing Tools)

by ograndebatata



Series: Tales of the Ever Realm [7]
Category: Elena of Avalor (Cartoon)
Genre: F/M, I guess it can't be said that there's an open actual relationship between Elena and Mateo, but the feelings are present there
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:29:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,220
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27053434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ograndebatata/pseuds/ograndebatata
Summary: This work was written in response to a prompt by chrissybell648 on Tumblr.
Relationships: Mateo de Alva/Elena Castillo Flores
Series: Tales of the Ever Realm [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1453522
Kudos: 10





	Elena (Changing Tools)

**Author's Note:**

> This work was written in response to a prompt by chrissybell648 on Tumblr.

_A bit over three weeks after Los Tres completed their unfinished mission and became Los Cuatro…_

This was weird.

It was the only word to describe this scenario, Elena thought as she stood in the improvised workshop Mateo had set up at Nueva Vista, holding Mateo’s lucky tamborita in her right hand, about to make her first try at casting a spell with it.

Yes, it had been her idea, but it still seemed weird that she was actually getting ready to learn tamborita magic. As much as she had nothing against magic, had always found Mateo’s spell-casting interesting, and had been interested in the subject to a degree, she had a busy schedule, and had always felt the Scepter of Light would be enough for her purposes.

But as fate would have it, she had been wrong about that, which was why she had asked Mateo to teach her magic.

And it seemed she was off to a bad start, because for whatever reason, something about the tamborita felt… off, for lack of a better word.

She couldn’t pinpoint what. She had seen Mateo wielding it lots of times. She had even handled it herself before, like when she gave it to him under the gazebo in the ballroom’s balcony balcony, on the night she had made Mateo her Royal Wizard and he had proved his worth to those who still doubted him. Yet now that she was sterling herself to cast a spell with it, it felt unnatural even before she had tried to unleash magic.

“What’s the matter?”

Elena’s heart gave the slightest of jumps at the sound, the tamborita shaking in her hand. For the faintest of moments, the odd feeling strengthened. Then a foot tapped the floor to her right, and next thing she knew Mateo was leaning toward her, his hazel-green eyes shadowed with concern, and his left hand to her back as his right one fell alongside his body, holding the tamborita they had found in Nueva Vista’s castle.

“Elena?” he added, somehow saying so much even though he had only spoken her name.

Feeling the faintest edge of weight above her eyebrows, she turned to face Mateo with a smile on her face.

“Don’t worry. Nothing’s wrong.”

Mateo’s calm gaze didn’t change, but the subtle way his eyebrows curled and the way his hand pressed an edge deeper into her back told her he knew she said that just to make him feel better.

The weight in her eyebrows also surging on the corners of her mouth, Elena explained, “I’m not sure what’s going on. But there’s something about this tamborita that feels…” she pursed her lips as she tried to find the right word. “…weird.”

Alarm jolting through her as she realized how it might sound like, she grinned sheepishly and added, “I mean, I know it’s a great tamborita, and I know it rescued us more times than I wish I had to remember.” A hint of dejection returned to her face. “But for some reason it doesn’t seem to like me.”

Mateo put on an over the top stern expression on his face and planted his right hand - still clenched around his tamborita’s handle - on his hip, even as he removed his left one from her back and pointed its index finger at the tamborita Elena held in a mock-threatening manner.

“Bad tamborita! Bad!” he fake-scolded as he waved his finger back and forth at it. “Be nice to Elena, she’s wonderful!”

A smile burst across her lips. Even with Mateo being an obvious goof to cheer her up, she could tell he meant it when he called her wonderful. He always meant it when he complimented her. And that made her happier than she could ever say.

“I don’t think scolding it is going to work, Mateo,” she quipped, a teasing glint in her eyes.

Mateo straightened himself.

“Worth a try, I guess,” he quipped back, the teasing tone in his voice belied by his happy smile.

Elena’s own smile widened even further. Mateo was always so attentive to her. So kind, so considerate, so… so wonderful in general.

 _Get a grip!_ An inner voice shouted at her. _How do you think you look making eyes at him like that?_

Startled by the voice, Elena felt her face flushing, suddenly aware of how ridiculous she must look staring at Mateo like a lovestruck teenager - which she supposed she was, but that was beside the point.

 _Focus!_ The same voice insisted.

Doing her best to obey, Elena took a deep breath to will her blush to vanish.

“Seriously. Why does it feel so weird?”

A few moments of silence passed by as Mateo pondered the question.

“I don’t know. I haven’t had enough students to be sure. If I had to guess, it should be just a matter of habit,” He stepped forward, and again put his hand to her back. “But if you feel bad enough that you want to quit, just say so.”

Elena raised her free hand in reassurance. “No, I don’t feel bad. Just… odd.”

Mateo’s posture did not relax.

“Still…” he paused, tensing up as if he had to gather himself to speak. “…it may be a sign of something dangerous. Maybe we should look into this further before you do anything else.”

Despite the gloomy words, Elena felt her smile returning. Mateo really was wonderful. He had been thrilled to teach her magic when she had first asked him. He loved sharing that part of himself with others after years of having to hide it, and she could tell he was anxious to share it even more with her. And yet now that it seemed it might hurt her, his first instinct was to look out for her own well being.

She was more touched than she could say - but as it seemed to be her habit, she had to go against his advice.

Moving her tamborita to her left hand, Elena turned to him and rested her right hand on the crook where Mateo’s shoulder met his neck.

“It’s a risk I’m ready to take.”

It was a risk she had to take. She knew that now.

Yes, she had hoped that Shuriki being gone for good meant that actual threats to her kingdom would follow the same path, but it had been an all-too fleeting illusion. Not only had Victor and Carla Delgado escaped, but far too many things had ensued. First the malandros that had taken over Coronado had gotten far too close to potentially killing her and her friends just because the Scepter of Light had glitched at exactly the wrong time. Then the Macoco that had tried to find El Escudo had almost put an end to her life largely because her scepter had again malfunctioned right when it shouldn’t. And that was without getting into the fact that Orizaba might not be gone for good and would perhaps still be able to find a way to cross back over into Avalor and bring eternal night.

Yes, Mateo had been doing his best to find a way to fix the Scepter of Light, and Elena was beyond thankful for all the effort he put into it. But as much as it pained her, she simply couldn’t wait longer for Mateo to find the solution he sought. She had to learn to channel her magic some other way.

A heartbeat after that thought, Elena looked down in shame, removing her hand from Mateo’s shoulder. It sounded so unfair to think of him like that after everything he had been doing lately. He had been there for her for the fallout of Shuriki’s latest series of attempts on her life. He had consoled her as she cried her heart out over Cristobal’s betrayal. He had been reading every book he could find in his attempts at finding a way to fix the scepter. He had asked Zuzo and Cacahuate to search the Spirit World for any information on that matter. He had gone to Tepet Mul on Dia de los Muertos in an attempt to contact Amalay’s spirit for information about the scepter directly from his crafter. And on top of that, he had agreed to teach her magic when he was already teaching it to Isabel and was also teaching Olivia and Alonso by mail - at least as well as something like magic could be taught in such a way.

And all this when he was meant to be on vacation.

Even if they were less on vacation and more in the final stages of sorting out the mess that had ensued from finding out Cristobal was a traitor, he was still squandering all the time he could spend relaxing trying to help others, Elena herself chief amongst them.

Her heart growing heavier, Elena took a deep sigh. It felt so wrong to think Mateo wasn’t doing enough when he was already doing so much…

A spot of warmth returned to her back. Elena looked up, and met Mateo’s gaze, the concern in it so intense it almost hurt.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked.

She chuckled mirthlessly.

“I should be the one asking that.”

Mateo raised an eyebrow in puzzlement.

“Isn’t this too much for you? You’re already so busy. And you have already done so much for me…”

Her voice trailed off and her head turned to the floor again. Seeing Mateo so earnest about his concern for her made her feel even worse that, despite her best efforts to not do so, she kept abusing it.

The warmth on her back shifted slightly, and Mateo’s hand appeared before her eyes. At first it seemed to be going toward her chin, but then it froze for a moment before it headed toward her shoulder instead.

Despite herself, her eyes followed along his maroon-clad arm to stare into his hazel-green eyes again. The gaze in them was just as gentle as before.

“Elena, I told you I would be here for you no matter what,” he said, his voice even softer than usual and yet with more power than any bellowed decree some rulers she had met would make. “That hasn’t changed one bit just because we now actually know for absolute real that Shuriki is dead.”

Her heart seemed to grow until it was about to burst at those words. They were true, and Elena had known they were true for so long she had forgotten exactly when she had learned it, but something about hearing him say that, in that tone…

“If you really want to learn this, I’ll help you to the best of my ability,” he went on. “If you don’t, we’ll stop right here and now.”

Elena rested both her hands on the one Mateo had on her shoulder.

“I do.”

And she did. Even if her primary motivation was protecting her kingdom, she was indeed curious about how tamborita magic worked, about how different it would be from her scepter, and about what kind of other things she’d be able to do with it. Though she planned to keep Mateo as her Royal Wizard after she was crowned queen, there would probably be more than a few things about ruling that magic might help along, and knowing them herself might make ruling smoother in some ways - even if it might make them more complicated in others. This seemed like as good a chance to start learning as she would get.

As if he had sensed the change in her mood - which Elena guessed he had, given how well he knew her by this point - Mateo stepped back and gestured with his tamborita.

“Then whenever you’re ready…”

A smidge of doubt crept back on her. She didn’t know if she was ready. Now that she wasn’t focused on talking to Mateo, the weird feeling of holding the tamborita had returned.

But she supposed she would only know what happened if she actually tried to use it.

Standing as tall as possible, Elena took a deep breath, and aimed her tamborita. Then she clenched the handle tighter, narrowed her eyes at the bowl as if that made all the difference in the world, and brought her hand down on the drum’s surface.

* * *

“ _Llévaluq!_ ”

Mateo’s heart jumped at the sound of the smack, as if Elena was about to flinch or shout in pain.

But she didn’t. While she frowned the moment after she hit the tamborita, the drum glowed upon being slapped like it was meant to when someone tried to cast a spell. It glowed white rather than golden, but Mateo guessed that was just the color of Elena’s magic. And while the actual bowl remained just as static as before, that was normal. Even with all Elena had learned about magic - both during her time in the Amulet and after being released from it - and with how well she had done in the theory lessons he had been giving her over the last three weeks, this was still the first time she tried using a tamborita. It would be a borderline miracle if she managed to perform the spell properly.

 _Looks like she doesn’t agree._ Mateo thought as he saw Elena looking from the tamborita to her hand, still with the same frown that had appeared after she had smacked the drum.

Perhaps it was related to what she had been feeling.

“What happened?” he asked.

She turned a hesitant sideways look at him.

“I’m not sure. Can I try again?”

Mateo pursed his lips as he pondered the answer. If Elena’s unusual feeling wasn’t just not being used to wielding a tamborita, it likely wouldn’t go away just like that. But as far as he could tell from Elena’s face and posture (and he had made sure to pay attention) she hadn’t been in pain. It should be safe enough, and it would let him see if it was actually more than lack of habit. 

“Sure,” he said.

Elena aimed her tamborita at the bowl once again.

“ _Llévaluq_!” she shouted louder and more vehemently as she tapped the drum.

The tamborita glowed again. This time, the bowl started to rattle against the table’s surface. But rather than frowning, Elena actually had her teeth clenched as if she was both trying to push a heavy burden and trying not to exert too much strength.

 _‘Come on!_ ’ he actually saw her mouthing through her snarl as her eyebrows pushed into one another.

The tamborita glowed brighter, and for an instant the bowl actually floated about a handspan upwards, but then the drim stopped glowing and Elena let out a deep sigh as she lowered her arms while the bowl clattered back onto the table.

Elena huffed in irritation, waving the tamborita up and down, like she did with her scepter when it glitched.

 _That one’s new._ Mateo couldn’t help but think.

He frowned at himself at the thought. Now was not the time for fake-witty remarks. He needed to help Elena. And from what he had seen, he finally had an idea on what she meant when she said the tamborita felt weird and that it didn’t like her.

But he couldn’t be sure without confirming.

He started to raise his hand, but before he could do or say anything else, Elena aimed the tamborita again and smacked it as hard as if she was trying to break a stone.

“ _LLÉVALUQ!_ ” she bellowed, the look of strain in her face as intense as if she was trying to push a stubborn donkey with its hooves glued to the ground.

Mateo’s breath froze in the middle of his throat as a sudden black cloud seemed to come over them- and then, the white glow of Elena’s magic erupted around the bowl and the table underneath it, both of which shot up like arrows.

“ _XIMAGU!_ ” Mateo shouted as he raised his tamborita and slapped its surface on cue with the table and the bowl smashing into the ceiling with a thunderous clap.

A golden-orange shield pushed past himself and Elena and slammed into the bits of debris flying toward them. Wood and ceramic flew through the room and bounced off the walls and rebounded from the closed door and clattered onto the floor.

Mateo counted to three as he surveyed the room, half-expecting to hear anyone stampeding inside to check on them. He hoped no one did, for Elena’s sake. She already had enough problems without added concerns about what someone would think of this. As much as Mateo knew it was a natural flub typical of early magic lessons, others might not agree.

But for whatever reason, no one burst in.

Perhaps no one was close enough to have heard. Or maybe they had decided that this kind of thing was ordinary in a wizard’s workshop. And while Mateo couldn’t decide if that was good or bad, at least they wouldn’t have to deal with questions now.

Masking a relieved sigh, Mateo lowered his tamborita, both the shield and the glow from the drum fading. Beside him, Elena lowered her hands, her breathing labored and her muscles shaking. Mateo reached a hand toward her, but this time halted it a hairsbreadth from her skin. If she was in pain, he might accidentally hurt her.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

Elena let out another labored breath.

“I think so.” Her lips curled into a sarcastic smirk. “But your lucky tamborita really doesn’t seem to like me.”

At Mateo’s quirked eyebrow, she added, “It’s like I try to channel my magic, but the tamborita only takes less than half of it and pushes the rest back into me.”

Mateo’s eyes narrowed pensively. His theory had been right, but all joking aside, this one really was new. The bulk of the problems he’d had when teaching magic so far were that his student wanted to cast a given spell but their magic was not yet strong enough to perform it properly. The only instance remotely like this had been when Olivia tried to cast ‘ _chiufeti_ ’ on the night they first met and had both said the wrong word and hit the tamborita too hard.

But if the tamborita just didn’t channel Elena’s magic, there had to be something else at play.

“Well?” Elena asked, her eyes locked on his like she was trying to read a book written in very small font.

After a quick run through his knowledge on magic, Mateo started laying out his theories.

“Perhaps that tamborita is made of wood from the wrong kind of tree. Or it might actually be made of the wrong material. Or maybe you’re using the wrong type of wand.”

Elena frowned like she had spotted a weird-looking animal.

“Those things make a difference?”

He nodded. “They do. Not an insurmountable difference, mind you. In most cases, any wizard gifted and dedicated enough can learn to use just about every tool. But there seems to be a certain connection between a wizard’s land of origin and the kind of tool they use better.” He raised his hands and started listing by his fingers. “For instance, wizards from Enchancia are best with standard magic wands, typically made of wood. Wizards from Freezenburg and Norberg tend to be better at using warhammers, which are typically made of metal. And here in Avalor and surrounding kingdoms, wizards do better when using tamboritas, which are typically made of wood and leather.”

Elena nodded.

“And where does that leave me?”

Mateo snuck a glance at his tamborita as he thought.

“Well, we know you can use the Scepter of Light because you have Maruvian magic from your time in the Amulet. That’s the reason it was never magical when your father or Shuriki used it. And while the little bit of magic you had when you got out of the Amulet has grown since then, it hasn’t changed its nature.”

Elena’s shoulders slumped at his words.

“So I’ll never be able to properly use anything other than the scepter?”

On reflex, Mateo rested his hand on one of her shoulders. His heart leapt as he remembered his earlier concern about Elena being hurt, but she didn’t frown or hiss at his touch.

Mateo again allowed himself an inward sigh of relief before he kept speaking.

“I didn’t say that. We already saw you can channel magic through a type of wand that’s not ideal for you. And you could actually cast the right spell with such little training, which is quite impressive. But it’s clear you’d do better with something other than a wooden tamborita.”

“Like what?”

Mateo removed his hand from Elena’s shoulder and drummed his fingers along the tamborita’s handle as he searched for every bit of information he had read on Maruvian magic.

Then, he said, “I think I read something about Maruvian wizards typically using crystal tamboritas. If we find out how to make you one and you learn to use it, I’m thinking that would be the best choice.”

“How long would that take?” Elena immediately asked.

Mateo frowned. “Quite a while, if I had to guess. But it’s our best option.”

He had to hold back a chuckle at Elena’s pout, the one she always made at the idea of having to wait for something. Maybe it was mean of him to think so, but she looked so adorable when she made that face.

Then all the urge to chuckle vanished as her pout turned into a frown and she raised the tamborita to her face, looking at it as if it was made of silk paper and she had been told she’d have to fight a jaguar with it.

Mateo clenched his fist. The idea of her being in any kind of pain hurt as much as a physical hit. What would he give to actually be able to find a way to ensure in a foolproof manner that Elena would never be hurt again, to ensure she’d remain safe until the end of a very happy and long life…

Like heated water, the thought grew more and more intense in his mind. And then, as if the fire had been put out, it vanished. Such a thing didn’t exist. Even genies and Maruvian wizards of old were or had been unable to circumvent any form of harm. And he might be a better wizard now than when Elena appointed him, but that was still something he would never be able to give her.

Resting his hand on her back, Mateo spoke in the gentlest tone he could.

“Remember, your scepter is still working for the most part. And many people who care for you are still here to help you stay safe. Naomi, your sister, and your grandparents, all the guards…”

Elena raised her eyes from his lucky tamborita, now with a small grin on her face.

“And you,” she added.

He nodded. “And me.”

 _Always._ He added inwardly.

Something about that must have passed onto his gaze, because her smile grew like a sunbeam getting wider as it peeked through a gap in clouds.

Then, a hint of the determination he’d come to know and love peeked through it and she raised the tamborita again.

“Can I try using this one just once more?”

Mateo chuckled. “I don’t think that will change anything…”

Her eyebrows set in a rigid line. “I’d still like to try.”

He moved his hand from her back to her shoulder.

“Are you sure you feel well enough for that?”

Her mouth set into a line. “I am.”

Mateo nodded. He knew Elena was the type who would on occasion put on masks to feel others less worried about her, but he had learned to tell the difference between those moments and the ones where she meant what she said. This one was the latter.

“Alright.”

He looked at the pieces of debris that used to be a table, and then pointed at a broken piece of one of the table’s legs.

“Try to lift that chunk of wood until it’s about at the height of your head.”

She nodded in acknowledgment, and then aimed her tamborita and raised her other hand to slap it.

“Wait!” Mateo called before she could swing her hand down. “I need to do something that might help me get a better idea on how things are. May I?”

At Elena’s nod, Mateo stood behind her and took his right hand to her tamborita’s handle and his other to her left upper arm. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Elena sneaking him a surprised glance, but there was no alarm in her eyes and she made no attempt to move away.

“This way I’ll learn better what you mean about your magic. It might help when we’re studying better options.”

Elena nodded again, a smile on her face.

That was the last thing Mateo saw before closing his eyes, reaching out with his ‘magical sense’ to have a better idea on how Elena’s magic would work once she tapped her tamborita.

But she didn’t do it.

In fact, she didn’t move at all, other than what felt like slightly faster breathing and her seeming to nestle into his touch just an edge.

She really smelled good, Mateo couldn’t help but think. And felt so warm… And her skin and hair were so soft…

 _Why are you thinking that now?_ A voice that sounded a bit like a sterner version of his own told him. _You’re meant to be teaching her, not snuggling with her!_

Somehow managing not to flinch at the sudden inner remark, Mateo told Elena.

“You can try any time now…”

He felt her nodding.

“Alright.”

For whatever reason, it seemed to him like she had nestled an edge further into him after those words. But before he could be sure, he felt her raising her free arm, then her magic built up underneath her skin, and her arm swung down as magic rushed through her.

“ _Llévaluq_!”

Magic rushed under his palms as she performed the spell. And indeed, the way it felt when it rushed under her forearm was different from how it felt as it moved through the tamborita, indeed as if some of her magic had stopped at the wooden surface and refused to get further. He couldn’t see how far she was raising the piece of wood, but if he had to guess it wasn’t as tall as she had expected it to.

Her muscles tensed up under his left palm, and then more magic rushed along the tamborita’s handle under his right one before stabilizing again. A tired sigh left her lips, but magic kept flowing along the tamborita, although Mateo knew it was not at the same rate as she was pushing it.

Mateo opened his eyes - and opened them further as they widened in awe, as the piece of wood floated at just about the height he had asked Elena to levitate it to.

“Well done! You did it!”

Elena’s face glowed at his words for an instant. Then, it tensed up in strain as the piece of wood faltered in the air. Elena kept the tamborita aimed at it, but the slab of table leg floated back to the ground like a stone sinking into water.

“But you were right,” she replied. “It didn’t change anything.”

Mateo removed his hands from the tamborita and her forearm, but rested another between her shoulder blades.

“At least we figured out the essential. You can channel your magic through something other than the scepter, and you can use one specific spell when you want to. It’s a great start. Better than mine when I started trying out.”

Elena turned to him and shifted so she could hold the hand he had been putting to her shoulder blades.

“Thankfully I’m lucky enough to have the great teacher you deserved.”

Mateo could only smile as he gripped her hand in return, feeling a familiar warmth going back and forth between the two of them, conveyed both by the contact between their hands and the one between their gazes.

Then, Elena withdrew her hand from his’ and asked.

“So, what’s next?”

“I think we’ve done enough for one day.” The familiar pout returned at his words, but Mateo did not change his mind about what he would say. “Inner magic is like everything else. If you strain it too hard, it can be hurt, and sometimes suffer permanent damage. And you’ve strained it far more than you should for such a brief lesson.”

Elena sighed at his words, lowering her tamborita as she turned her eyes to the floor. He could imagine the struggle she was having. On one side, taking enough care of herself to be able to protect her kingdom from a magical threat if the need arose. On the other, the knowledge that if the need arose soon enough, it would be too likely for anyone’s taste that the scepter would fail and there would be trouble.

Hoping to get her to think about something else, “It’s a lovely day outside. How about we go to the beach?” 

Elena cracked a grin at his suggestion and bumped his chest with her elbow. “Alright, who are you and what have you done with Mateo? I’m the one who drags him out of the workshop, not the other way around.”

She playfully bumped his shoulder with her tamborita as if to make her words sink in. Mateo deliberately shrugged.

“Isn’t it nice to make a change once in a while? To be bold and daring on occasion?”

She chuckled.

“Nice to see you’re learning.” Her amused grin shifted into a pleased one. “And I do like your idea. Meet me at the balcony when you’re ready?”

“Sure.”

At his reply, she handed over his lucky tamborita and left his workshop. Mateo went to put away the tamborita he had used for the lesson and followed her. But as he closed the door, he froze at the sight before his eyes.

The broken bits of table and bowl still lay scattered about the room, at the exact spots where they had landed after rebounding from the shield he had put up. If anyone came around while they were gone, it wouldn’t be a pretty picture.

 _You can take care of that later._ The same ‘different version’ of his voice from a while ago told him, though it seemed to be using a softer tone than before.

Needing no more, Mateo closed the door to his workshop and went to his bedroom.

The voice was right. He could take care of that later. First, he had to do his best to help Elena cope with everything he wished she didn’t have to deal with. All he wished was that he’d be able to do it.

Unfortunately, he was old enough to know best.

Despite his best efforts, he might fail, just like he might fail at fixing the Scepter of Light.

But just like he vowed to do his best not to fail at fixing the scepter, he vowed to do his best not to fail at helping Elena deal with this.

_No matter what._


End file.
